Last Day in Taiwan

So my flight is tonight around 11:30pm I think, we have to leave early though at like 8:30? Cause there will be heavy traffic since everyone wants to go watch the fireworks at 101. Too bad we are gonna miss it :(, hopefully I can catch the fireworks from the sky if we fly over Taipei and if we time it correctly. So anyways this time of year always come around where its the last day of Taiwan and I really reminisce about the my stay for the past couple days. But as for today, I accompanied my parents to go shop for A LOT of food supplies, luckily my dad's friend was able to drive us in the morning. So we reached our destination, and we bought A LOT of food, it barely fit in my dads friend's lexus es trunk. So he drove us back and wanted to treat us to lunch but he was too busy so we said our goodbyes. We then began packing some more trying to fit the stuff we bought today into our remaining luggages. I think the food took up about 3-4 luggages :P and not just any luggage our biggest luggages. So we spent the morning on that, we then ate lunch at home, then set off to Q Square (shopping center/ bus station). We took the train to Zhongxiao Fuxing switched trains to Taipei Main Station, where we walked to Q Square. This first thing I did was look for the store that sold the shirt I wanted. Went in a circle on B2 until we go to that store, where I initially couldn't find the shirt, but the store person quickly located the shirt I wanted. Unfortunately it was only an L, so I tried it on and it barely fit on me. I decided to get it over another shirt, because one it was cheaper, and two becuase I thought it was better looking. So I got that, then we headed to the Nike store, cause my duffle bag I currently have is ripping, so we went to look for one, My dad and I were split on two different bags, I was sold on a Jordan bag, while my dad wanted to get a Nike bag. Basically it came down to this, the Jordan bag looked really nice, but it wasn't as practical since it only had three pockets to go along with its main cargo area. Where as the Nike bag was very practical had many pockets a cooler thing inside, but didn't look as great. Practicality or Looks?Well if you know me, I went with the Jordan bag haha. So my dad bought me that, we then went to explore the upper floors as we had not yet been up there, then explored the bottom floor cause me and my mom haven't been there. We then headed back toward ZhongXiao Fuxing where we went to Sogo, cause my mom wanted to get something for my grandma on the 8th floor. Don't really know what it is, its for my grandma's knee though. We then headed back and here we are now. *Sigh* It's always a pain to leave Taiwan cause I miss it so, but somehow somewhere deep inside me, it's telling me its time to go since I've already been here for quite some time. So I basically gonna highlight my experience and share some of the not so grand moments during this trip haha.

Highlights:

-Definitely arriving in Taiwan

-Seeing my relatives and family friends in Taiwan

-Taipei Metro - cause I love it so much

-My grandma's cooking: cause its that delicious

-My aunt coming up to take us to Yilan and Tai Ping Mountain: definitely one of the biggest highlights

-killing my bro at Foosball and basically in pool at the grand boss hotel

-First time watching a movie in a Taiwan movie theatre with my uncle and cousin: Bodyguard and Assassins

-Eslite, New York New York, Taipei 101, Shin Guan Mistuoki, Shin Guan San Yuer, night markets :)

-Going to the top of Taipei 101

-Wedding Dinner: it was extravagant

-all the buffets we went to :)

Not so Highlight:

-the plane ride over to Taiwan and probably to America :P

-mosquitos

-humidity sometimes

-waking up early

-jetlag

Things I will always remember:

-all the inside joke references: curry house

-when three buses were trying to cram into two lanes

-cooking eggs at Tai Ping Mountain

-corny 80's-90's chinese movies

-all the nice cars I've seen here: Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati, BMW, Mercedes, Audi etc and the car show at 101

Things I will look forward to for the next visit:

-Spending more time with extended family: feels like I barely spent any time with them :P

-Going to Neihu: cause apparently there is a porsche and ferrari dealership there

-Taking the High Speed Rail Train

Going back to the top of 101 since it was cloudy when we went

-Shopping :D

LAST FULL DAY IN TAIWAN

So today was my last full day in Taiwan, I got woken up at 7:30 even though I was hella sleepy and I had a hella good dream where I bought an Aston Martin and Ferrari *puuaahh* Well my dad bro and I went to go get breakfast at our usual spot and afterwards started to pack since we are leaving tomorrow, I still need to pack my carry ons but that won't take too much time hopefully haha. Well I decided to take a nap around 11:30 but got woken up again at 12:46ish. We then headed out to Eslite bookstore via taxi. We got dropped off at Eslite and my parents continued onwards to my great aunt's house. So my bro and I walked around Eslite, and we went immediately to the Ferrari Store, o yeah my dad gave me and my bro an extra 1000 NT to use for our last two days, its a new year miracle :). Well we go to the Ferrari Store and quickly found out that most of the stuff they have in their was too expensive. So we went to a neighboring stand and I bought a bunch of funny 'car stickers' for myself and friends haha. Well we continued around Eslite until my parents came by and one of my dad's friends called the cell phone I was holding. So they went and met up at the Starbucks on the first floor of Eslite, while my bro and I continued to look around Eslite until we found our way to Starbucks. I ordered a Toffee Nut Latte which was pretty good if I say so myself. Well my mom bro and I then set off afterwards to a European style mall called Bellavita, and that has got to be one of the most high classed places I have ever been to in my life. We then went across the street to Shin Guan San Yuer where it consisted of 5-7 building all connected by an air bridge, we didn't get to finish looking around there. So we met up again with my dad and dad's friend briefly and said goodbye to my dad's friend. We then went to Zhong Xiao Fuxing, where my bro and I got split up temporarily with my parents who got on the train before us :P it was actually pretty funny haha. So we met up again at Zhong Xiao Fuxing, then went to the Zhong Xiao Fuxing Guan which is the fancy Sogo. I have to say their top floor is AMAZING, half of it was a japanese house display, and the ceiling light up with the a starry sky and shooting star, and you can see the whole thing from three different floors. So that was really cool, we then decided to head back, where we met up with my uncle, we think he got possessed temporarily, I'm not gonna get into it cause its too long to explain, but let just say all fingers point to him being a medium. So he left not long after he came. So here I am now watching TV and what not, tomorrow I think I need to help my parents carry the Do Bao, but we're gonna meet up with my dad's friend tomorrow there too. I'm also gonna go to the Bus Station Mall behind Taipei Main Station because I want to get another Nippon Blue. Then we have to set off for the airport around 8:30 since our flight is at 11ish. Hopefully I'll have time to blog tomorrow and basically recap my stay at Taiwan.

Taipei 101

So today I kind of woke early, around 7:30? So this morning, my aunt took my grandma out shopping, while we went to Carrefour again to buy more snacks and what not. I just got more pringles lol. So we left Carrefour and took the Green 2 bus back to my grandma's house, where we caught up with my aunt whose was about to leave for Shinju to take my grandma back to her other place to get some supplies, and that was last that I saw of my aunt. I am really grateful to my aunt because everytime we come back she always takes time out of her busy schedule to take us out. I honestly can say that every time I go back to Taiwan, I always look forward to seeing her haha. So we headed off to eat lunch with two of my parents friends at a 5 star vegetarian restaurant, the stuff was really good :) So we left when the restaurant closed around 2:30. So we decided to head toward 101, since last year I wanted to go but my mom said to wait for my bro and dad to come back. So, we headed to 101, where it was 400 NT to get to the highest floor we could reach that day which was the 89th floor. The elevator was FAST...we reached the top in a matter of seconds, and my ear kept on popping due to the sudden rise in elevation. So we reached the top and to our dismay we could not see a whole lot because it was cloudy that day. We were still able to see Taipei though just not too much of it. So we walked around and took MANY pictures, we also got to see the 'weather damper' which was a huge ball in the middle of the 88th and 89th floor which helps level the 101 during extreme weather such as heavy wind so that its structure won't sway with it. So that was really cool and I bought souvenirs from the gift shop, the whole experience up there was surreal, but hopefully the next time I go it won't be cloudy haha. So we headed down where me and my bro continued to take a butt load of pictures during the maserati and ferrari car show in 101. We walked around 101 until it got dark, we had to go to a Nike store cause my dad need to change his shoes cause his old ones were really wearing out. We then HAD to head home cause grandma made dumplings (which I might add was superb) We didn't get a chance to go to Eslite, which is the biggest bookstore in Taiwan, so hopefully we'll go tomorrow or the day after, without interruption. I plan on going to the nippon blue store behind Taipei Main Station tomorrow, since I almost have enough money to buy another shirt haha.

O yeah I watched a corny kung fu movie called the 5 element ninjas last night, my bro and I laughed so hard watching it that I laughed myself to sleep haha.

Tai Ping Mountain

So today I woke up around 7...the clock was apparently 15 minutes early, so I got up early...not a smart decision -_-; as I will explain later. So I was playing around the room and found that our room's master control has a music button...I was curious so I pressed it, and the two speakers on the wall started playing music...and I thought to myself...wow this is fancy. Anyways we had breakfast were I just had bread with butter in it and an omelet. My bro and I then played a quick game of pool, where he won by default since we ran out of time, then we checked out. We dropped off our stuff on our aunt's car, then headed our tour of Tai Ping Mountain, which is one of the tallest, if not the tallest, mountain in Taiwan. We rode in a large van that could seat about 9-10 people. The bus driver is CRAZY...since we were in a time crunch, the driver literally drove in the rain, on the mountain, completely foggy(like crazy foggy) and accelerated on the turns. O_O I swear I surprised the van didn't tip or fall off the cliff, but we made it anyways. So we had to climb a bunch of stairs to get to their train, where we also got coffee, where it took us further into the mountain where there were several trails. I really wanted to see the waterfall, but it was about a 2-3 hr hike so we decided not to. Well we then headed back via the same train, and ate lunch at a neighboring restaurant. We then headed to a hot spring on the mountain, where my bro aunt and my dad went to use the hot spring, and I proceeded to boil eggs at another hot spring. I have to say it was pretty fun, putting the eggs in the basket to boil in the water, and all the steam surrounding me while I boiled the egg. I have to say too the egg was pretty good too, I had about three of them and the driver had one. Well I was pretty tired out by then, so I took a nap on the van, and we arrived at this little store where my aunt grandma mom and dad bought a butt load of stuff while me and my bro was staring at the dog sitting in the store. So then we finally got back to the hotel, where we went to an all you can eat buffet across the street, it was pretty good and pretty cheap at the same time. Too bad I was too full from the three eggs I had otherwise I would have ate more. After that, we finally headed back to Muzha but not before getting lost by the confusing Yilan signs. Well here I am now, finally back at Muzha, I'm not sure what tomorrow has in store for me, but we'll see how tomorrow goes, my aunt is going to leave tomorrow too :( so yep we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Yilan

So today was quite an eventful day, I woke up around 7:30, and was starting to pack cause we were heading toward Yilan with my aunt and grandma. We set off around 9:30, where we got some breakfast to go, and was on our way to Yilan. My cousin who came to visit us last night with my uncle, warned us about traffic especially on Sunday and that it could have held us back. A normally 40 min drive could easily turn into more than 2 hrs. So when we got there, a feeling of nostalgia overcame me since I came here last year. I was on a mission to buy a bead bracelet for myself and my friends since I lost mines last year. Well we first sat in on a show they currently had on when we arrived. The first was an impressive puppet show and the second was a story play. Too bad my bro and I couldn't understand Taiwanese, so I left with my bro and dad to go shopping. All the stores were quite unique and I always have a good time shopping there. I bought A LOT. Outside of my beads, I bought a room decoration, a carbon copy of a deity, stuff for my friends and yeah, I am basically broke right now haha, though I do plan on spending the rest of my money before my stay in Taiwan is over. So after shopping and eating lunch while getting starbucks, I decided to walk around the parts I didn't get to when I went last year. Basically went to a 1887 style house and toured around it, and walked around to the residential area and fed fishes. I then went to visit the exhibition center where they had some exquisite artifacts. So then we basically left, we headed to the hotel we were staying which is called the Grand Boss Hotel, and I have to say this is a REALLY nice hotel, we then headed out to the night market where I went window shopping LOL, then we ate a a food stand in the night market. O yeah, we got face mask cause the airplane smell makes me really nauseous, then we went to a place where they specialize in taro stuff, and they were surprisingly REALLY GOOD. We then headed back to the night market cause my aunt wanted to get something, but me, my bro and I went back first to check out their recreation area which was in the basement. My bro and I played a round of foosball, where I killed him 9-1. Then we played pool where I first beat my bro (he scratched the 8 ball), beat my dad(scratched the 8 ball), my bro beat me ( i scratched the 8 ball), and finally I beat my bro legitimately. Haha, well I'm at the hotel room right now, I'm about to take a bubble bath lol, and yea, tomorrow we're taking a tour bus to the top of a mountain where the scenery is suppose to be EPIC, so I'm looking forward to that :)

WHAT A PACKED DAY

So I had to, yet again, wake up at 8am since my dad has come to taiwan. I guess my whole family are early birds, and im the only late night kind of guy :P, so at first I awoke to the sound of a mosquito buzzing around my ear, after much tossing and turning and slapping my face randomly at the buzzing noise...I finally got up, turned on the light and went on search and destroy. I quickly located the mosquito, where I then took a tissue box and smacked it against the wall. I have to say all the training in SC has paid off, but the mosquitos still have the upper hand as I have had 5 bites? and I only killed one. Anyways, we went to our usual breakfast spot, then accompanied my mom and grandma to a pray for an old master of our religion since she passed away. Apparently my mom, dad and grandma were really close to her so it was fitting we visited. We then headed back where we got changed into our formal clothes as we were attending a wedding banquet for lunch. We took the taxi over to the Hyatt hotel, and boy was that place fancy. I saw a blue ferrari california parked outside, speaking of which I also saw a ferrari F430, ferrari scaglietti, and a masaerati. So we entered the hotel, and the I have to say the banquet was really fancy and exquisite. Everything about it was so high class, from the waiters, the food, the grand entrance, and the dining of course haha. I have to say though the ice cream there is to die for. Well as we were in a time crunch, we had to leave slightly early, so we said our goodbyes, and headed to the movie theatre to meet up with my cousin and uncle which was literally right next door, where we caught the movie bodyguard and assassin. It was a really good and well made. I heard it took 10 years to make this movie since they want to get all the details right. It really was a tragic movie though, it about the Father of China, Sun Yet San, and how the people of China protected him when they were preparing to overthrow the British regime over China. Basically everyone died in the movie except three main characters. All the people protecting Sun Yet San died in the process of protecting him from British hired assassins. So that movie was well and good, we then headed over to Ming Der Restaurant, the same one I went to a couple days ago and stuffed myself, for dinner. That was nice, we then split ways with my uncle since he rode his moped over, I went into New York New York and finally bought the belt I was looking at for quite some time haha, I really need to portion out the rest of my cash lol. Anyways, we finally headed back were my aunt came up from dou liu to visit for a couple days. She is going to take us to Yilan tomorrow and we are going to some mountain afterwards. Really looking forward to that, but in the mean time I really need to rest, waking up at 8am is really not my thing haha.

Semi Eventful Day

So today we were suppose to visit another of my great aunt this morning, but they were busy, so we set out in the morning around 8:30 for nothing :P. Well we went and ate at our usual spot every morning, having the same old same old. We then headed over to a temple, forgot the name at the moment; me and my mom visited the place last year. Anyways we went over to visit, the temple worships the god who punishes souls in the underworld, basically an enforcer in the underworld. We then went to the underground walkway for there are rows of fortune telling. My dad, my bro and I went to different fortune tellers, basically my fortune teller told me making money will not be issue, but me, being a big time spender will lol. He also said I would have girl problems, meaning I will have a lot apparently, and the baggage that goes with it. Overall I won't completely take his word for it, since I am the who decides how my future plays out. He did hit on some interesting notes though, including my interest in marketing/sales as well as some other stuff, but overall interesting stuff. I've had my fortune told before and somethings seem to overlap so we'll see how that plays out in the future :). My bro got a crappy one though, she said he does poorly in his studies, which if having a 4.0 gpa over 2200 on SAT and 700-800 on SAT II mean poor academics, I must be a complete failure and that would go for most people :P. Now the next fortune teller I feel pretty bad for. Let me give you a background, my dad knows what he is doing when it comes to fortune telling with the method called ba zhe. It basically incorporates your birthday, time of birth, and for me a palm reading and face reading. My dad is pretty familiar with this, and the fortune teller was doing her thing, and my dad pointed out several mistakes in her process, which she initially denied. My dad became furious saying she doesn't know how to do it right, and stormed out. Yeah, my dad just knows how to grill you bad on things knowledgeable to him as I have come to known in the past 19 years haha. Anyways we still had some time to kill, so we ate at a shot down restuarant which was cramped and humid, and the food was mediocre, but I guess thats the Taiwan experience for you, we also went to ming der bookstore again and me and my bro got a meditation CD with soothing songs in it. We then walked to this bus station behind taipei main station which has a BUNCH OF STORES inside, and was really nice looking, comparable to 101. It was about a 20 minute walk. I got this Nippon Blue shirt for about 1140 NT? I REALLY LIKE THE SHIRT, in fact I like the whole brand, Nippon Blue. I have been calculation it out to go back and get another shirt, but we'll have to see how my expenses play out in the coming days. Afterwards we headed to my great aunts place and we stayed there for almost 3 hrs. I almost died from boredom. I mean its nice to visit her and all, but honestly I think 3 hrs is a bit much for me and my bro where we were playing 'lets try to make each other laugh' 'chopsticks' 'on a scale of 1-10 how much does it hurt' 'i spy' and 'guess which hand the coin is in'. Well we finally headed back from their place to go back where my grandma has arrived from Shinju. I then watched top gear on my bro's laptop and yeah.

Tomorrow, one of the 'old masters' in our religion passed away so we are going to that in the morning. Then we have to attend a wedding lunch, where we brought back formal clothes to attend. Then my uncle invited us to watch a supposedly good movie, about the Father of China and how he was rescued (kung fu film), and yeah. I'm still figuring out how to partition my remaning money between gift for friends, 101, and hopefully another Nippon Blue shirt. But we'll see how that plays out.

Another Day in Taiwan

So last night, my bro and my dad arrived in Taiwan around 9:20ish, so our uncle took us back that night, and we ran into complications with where to sleep since we can't all fit in the bottom floor. My dad originally wanted me to move to the third floor, but since I was ALREADY settled in, my dad decided to sleep on the third floor.

This morning, we went out to eat breakfast in this little restaurant where I always order the cheese dan bing, which is really good, I've already had this 3 times since coming haha. We then took the bus to the metro where we rode to Taipei City Hall to visit my great aunt and uncle. We initially get lost like every year haha, until we found their place. I have to say my parents chatted for a REALLY long time. Like I think we got there around 10ish and we were there until about 2, me and my bro got bored so we were messing around playing games and stuff. So we finally left, and my dad and bro wanted to get a haircut. Me and my mom went to a supermarket across the street, where I got Hey Song and my mom got instant noodles. So my bro and dad finally finished their haircut which seem to take forever, we then headed toward Taipei Main Station. So apparently Taipei Main Station has a the biggest food court around Taiwan, cause the whole second floor was just a bunch of restaurants and food courts. We at noodles initially, got pearl milk tea again, since apparently the one at the Taipei Main Station was the first commercially owned restaurant to sell pearl milk tea in 1986, I believe. I think proceeded to get a double sundae and baskin robins :), where I got coffee flavor and some candy pop flavor which was delicious. We then shopped around Taipei Underground Mall, where I got something for a buddy of mines and I went to the Taipei Metro Mall and bought myself another souvenir cause I like the Taipei Metro that much haha. We then headed back, where my mom saw an ad for some veggie buffet place. The place was deserted. No customer, no employee, no cashier, just food in a buffet stand. One of THE shadiest places I've been in Taipei. Lets just say even if someone was working there I wouldn't eat there. We ended getting Subway though :) We got back to our grandma's house, where our uncle dropped by, and we chatted for a bit.

Overall today has definitely been one of the more disappointing days. All I did for the majority of the day was wait. Wait for my parents to finish talking with my great uncle and aunt, and wait for my bro and dad to finish their haircut and that was basically 60% of the day. Really disappointing :P but tomorrow will be a better day. Tomorrow I plan to go to most of the place I want to go, and at the very least my parents can split with me and my bro so we can do our own thing while they handle their business, since we do have two cell phones and I do know my way around Taipei for the better part. So basically hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Sooo....

Soo yesterday my grandma left for Shinju, since i think she stays over there Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and stays at Muzha for the rest of the time. The reason being her house in Muzha can be considered quite big, and since she lives alone its really incovenient for her to move around, and I guess the house is scary at night too haha. So she stays with my Uncle in Shinju and they both come up to stay in Muzha over the weekend. Anyways, we were waiting for a delivery to drop by, but the delivery person called and said it wont be delivered until the next day. So we headed out, me wanting to go shopping and all. We first went to a place called Carrefour, it basically like our Costco in America. I bought A LOT of snacks then we got some instant noodles to bring back as well. I saw this pair of jeans I really liked, but they were right up around 3000 NT so I was like o.O....I'll see if I have money toward the latter part of the trip haha. Anyways we went there and that was cool. We headed back home to drop off our stuff, then once again headed out, cause my mom really needed to buy some threads and shoes for the wedding lunch thats coming up this Saturday. So we took the metro all the way to Taipei Main Station, where we shopped at Shing Kwong San Yre, and the Taipei Underground Mall. So my mom got a pair of formal shoes at the Underground Mall, couldn't find anything at Shing Kwong San Yre, so we went to a neighboring night market where my mom found a bunch of stuff haha. I didn't get anything though...except this 18 NT pudding from 7/11 lol, also got subway near Wanfang Hospital. I've been trying to do 50 pushups everyday and thats been going well so far, cept for one day where I did only 20 cause I fell asleep before I could finish :P. Anyways, I am still pretty hooked onto corny 80's-90's chinese movies cause I find that unique and hilarious. Let's see today I plan to go shop some more, my mom needs to go the bank and run some other minor errands, but other than that my bro and dad'd flight will arrive tonight, and I have only one thing to say...I'm not budging from my sleeping area lol :)

Slower Day

Well yesterday, I went to a bookstore called Eslite, which really close to Taipei 101, apparently the bookstore is quite famous, and really isnt 100% a bookstore, because it has many other little stores in there ranging fro clothes to little trinkets and apparently a ferrari store?!?! o.O that one shocked me haha. So the purpose of going to the bookstore was becuase my mom wanted to visit some old friends there, they had some cake and tea while i wandered about the 8-10 story bookstore...it was huge!! and at the same time very cool :) so we ended up eating there as well. There was what I thought to be an all you can eat buffet, but turns out they price it by the weight of your plate of food...AND I HAD A LOT...people's plate normally dont come out of 200 NT...mines was almost 400 NT xP...so i was really full for the rest of that day haha. So after saying bye to my mom's friends, I really wanted to look around since we were around Taipei 101 and there is A LOT of stuff to shop around. I especially like New York New York cause their second floor is known as the 'creative design' floor, and all the stuff there is really unique and interesting. Though I havent gotten anything from there yet, rest assured I will be back and surely enough bags of stuff in my hands :) So that was that day.

Today was really the first slow day for me. Woke up this morning and played a bunch of gran turismo. I accompanied by grandma to go shopping at the neighboring city of muzha, called Shenkeng. I was really shocked, the place was quite rural, and yet what did I find? A used dealership with a mercedes SL, bmw m6, range rovers, porsches...i was like o.O why did i not bring my camera?!?!?! haha its all good though. So we had lunch over there ( we ate there last year too) and after buying 'stinky tofu' and other various things, we finally headed back. Then around three me and my mom went to out to get a cell phone so me and my bro can use it, we were unsuccessful at the one near Wanfang Hospital, didnt find the store we were looking for at Zhongxiao Fuxing either, so we ended up going back to around Taipei 101, to buy a cell phone we could use for our duration of time at Taiwan. I really wanted to go shop today, but my grandma wanted me to help her out with cooking some stuff that requires a little strength, so we headed back and here I am now. We're suppose to go shopping tomorrow cause my mom needs to find formal shoes for a wedding dinner thats coming up, and I'm gonna tag along and hopefully find something hehe.

O yeah, I've been helping my grandma around the house, I would like to note that I had to switch out a light bulb for one this one ceiling light, and the people who installed put the screws on the wrong way, or the it was a huge design flaw and ended up taking me two days to fix the light :P, then my grandma wanted to help her pick some papaya from her garden, and i accidently bent the ladder since it was made of aluminum LOL my bad.

I figured since i did this last year in Taiwan I should do it this year too :P

So, I was thinking to myself the other day about how last year I was blogging almost on a daily basis, well basically blogging about each day, and how fun it would be to look back and see what happened. Well, I figured I give it another go this year, since I was very curious about what I blogged last year. Though I haven't taken a look at my blogs from last year, rest assured I will be on that right after this blog :).

So anyways, after a quite stressful fall quarter of college, I was definitely ready to wind down and just relax for once. Last Saturday, I went to visit Chinese School and messed around in my friends class, then we went Christmas Shopping, where I got a case for my psp go, a mighty mouse(yay!!), a business book by magic johnson, gta 4 and a anchor blue sweater. I chilled with friends on Sunday, went to the gym and played ball, watched the Blind Side (awesome movie) in the afternoon, and chill at my place afterwards. On Monday I went with my friend to gym to play ball again, we smashed lol.

So that was my America portion of the break. I finally finished packing the day I had to leave, I bought a subway sandwich(will come to haunt me later). We went to the airport after eating Pizza Chicago, and got there around 2:30. The airport security was PACKED. We waited in line for at least half an hour before we got through security. We entered the lounge since we were sitting in premium laurel class, and sneaked away with 6 cans of sodas and 7 bags of chips/cookies hehe. So we finally entered our plane, which was new 777-300ER or something like that, and I have to say the seats were NICE. like I could almost recline fully back and i could literally almost roll around in that seat. So I really enjoyed that seat, however, the lingering smell of airplane food made me queasy, so when I took a bite out of subway, I nearly yacked . So I slept through most of the flight and we finally touched down. The moment I stepped off the plane I could feel Taiwan, the smell, the feeling, everything. So my uncle came and picked us up and we got to my grandma's house around 10:40. My grandma wasn't home, so the house was pretty empty :P. O yeah, did I mention it was raining? Cause it still is now. So that night i got a typical 3-4 hrs of sleep, due to jetlag. So on Thursday, my grandma came but my mom had to run some errands so we went out of the house, she had some issues with her taiwan citizenship so we were going around to the bank and various offices. We also went to visit some of my mom's friends and relatives, which was nice. It was also really nice to ride on Taiwan's TRTS, which is one thing I almost always look forward too. O yeah, the muzha line's name got switched to wenhu line since the line got extended.

Let's see on Friday, my mom had, yet, to finish some more errands, we went to Xing Guan San Yre, or around Taipei Main Station to finish up my moms citizenship thing. I bought a birthday present for my friend whose birthday is coming up really soon at the Taipei Station underground mall. We then went to a bookstore late in the afternoon, it sells a lot of religious books, focusing on buddhism, and words from prophets, stuff like that. We then met up with one of my mom's old friends and had dinner with here at a really nice restaurant, which apparently was the same restaurant that my mom and dad had there wedding dinner :P. Anyways I stuffed myself like no other, it literally hurt to breathe. So they talked for quite awhile, they met up around 6 and we didnt leave until around 10. So we headed back and I knocked out.

On Saturday, it was finally my turn to go around and shop. We didnt leave until around 2. So we went to Zhongxiao Fuxing, where they had a Sogo there. I went there and looked around. We then went to Zhongxiao Fuxing underground mall which to me was semi lackluster but thats ok. My mom wanted to pick up a package she ordered around there which was the real reason why we went out. So we went and found out the delivery man forgot to deliver it the other night so we had to lounge around until 5:30 when the person was suppose to deliver it. So we had an hour and a half to squander. I went to a Adidas store and got this 780 NT belt since my belt is epic failing right now. We found our way to another department store which wasnt as glamorous as Pacific Sogo since it was older. We ended up getting Starbucks cause I was dead tired probably still feeling a little jetlagged. So we picked up our package and was on our way.

Today, we are suppose to meet up with my mom's friend near taipei 101, gonna try and see if we can go around 101 to shop. Some misc. things, I've been really hooked onto taiwan's movie channels which is like channels 60-70. I've seen a curry house lol, a FERRARI CALIFORNIA wtf, a poster with a man doing the finger wag LOL(inside joke), also i never thought three buses could fit in two lanes cause that almost happened...and i was in the bus trying to cram between the two. But yeah I'm loving it so far, soaking up the Taiwan culture is something I always look forward to each and every year. I'm still kinda bummed though cause the only relatives I've seen on my mom's side, we haven't gotten a chance to sit down and talk, cept my grandma and one of my uncles, but I know that will change in due time. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for my bro and dad to come over this wednesday, since I really do think they are holding me back from having fun over here in taiwan, because everything we do is oh lets wait for your bro and dad to come to do, which really is squandering my time here but im whatever about it, i still got a bit a time here in taiwan so im not gonna complain about it, I'll just live up the taiwan experience which is truly a unique opportunity for me. More to blog on the way!!